David Park suggested setting CellInsertionPointCell->None andShowCellBracket->True (or False), but these settings do not get rid ofthis small annoyance on my Mac version.He was also kind enough to send me his PresentationStyle stylesheetand when this stylesheet is applied to a notebook, indeed the "plus"sign does not appear.But I'm still looking for a way to suppress the "plus" sign in anotebook in version 8 without having to resort to any particularstylesheet. A global option setting in the system that would revertthe display to the old simple traditional notebook interface.